Since I already spend hours of my day reading and researching baseball statistics, I feel like I should impart some of my more esoteric tidbits of baseball knowledge to my loyal blog readers. And I might as well join the millions of baseball bloggers in an attempt to act like I actually know what I'm talking about. These posts should also be helpful to fantasy baseball players (like myself) who don't have the time or motivation to dig through unending pages of stats and player notes.
Today's baseball post examines the curious lack of hype for the young Angels slugger Casey Kotchman. Selected in the first round in 2001, Kotchman is only 24 years old, and he is putting up elite batting statistics this year: .333 avg, 8 hr, 35 rbi, .411 OBP (24:16 BB:K ratio). Kotchman's .967 OPS ranks him 9th in the majors. Moreover, Kotchman's GPA (gross production average -- basically OPS adjusted for park factors) is .336, placing at #7 in the league between David Ortiz and Prince Fielder.
Perhaps Kotchman's .152 avg in 2006 scared the hype bandwagon away. Nevermind the fact that he had mono last spring, and went on the DL for the year with the illness in May.
Kotchman hasn't exactly come out of nowhere. His career Minor League #'s: .325 avg, .407 OBP, .900 OPS. In 2001, Baseball America rated Kotchman the #1 high school prospect in the country.
So why isn't this guy demanding the sort of hype typically showered on young phenoms (see David Wright, Prince Fielder, Justin Verlander)? He's currently suffering from post-concussion symptoms (someone threw a baseball at his head), so maybe the injury has quieted the hype machine. The real answer, I think, is that Kotchman has never really showed 40-50 HR potential. That's ok with me though. He's on my fantasy team for good and I have no fear predicting 2007 #'s of: .320 avg, 28 HR, 100 RBI, 90 BB's, 90 runs. Going forward, Casey Kotchman will be a top 15 player for years.
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